Running a DjVu Slide Show
A report by Jame Rile, PlanetDjVu, December 31, 2002
Editors Update Note - 1/8/2003
 Adobe Systems today released a free Image Viewer 4.0 plug-in for Adobe Acrobat, which will play PDF-based slide shows created with a new product called Photoshop Album, to be released in February, and featuring transition effects and a tagging system for classification. With the plug-in, Acrobat can now run slideshows consisting of PDF collections, in addition to running a slideshow consisting of a single PDF file. See the product release article at http://www.planetpdf.com/mainpage.asp?webpageid=2542&nl. Now on to the review of slideshows for DjVu!
Introduction
Slideshows are one of my favorite features for document and image viewing. If you are reading on-line and your monitor is big enough to read the text in "fit page" magnification, then reading the text within a slideshow works great. With all toolbars and frames out of the way, the page image can stretch from the very top to the very bottom of the screen.
Why is screen maximizing important? Your monitor has a resolution of 72 - 96 dpi, while the DjVu page is typically 300 dpi (dots per inch). If you have a 19" or 21" monitor, or a flat screen monitor, then most likely you will be able to read documentss on-line in "fit page" magnification, provided you maximize the amount of dots that are available to describe the characters to your eyes. The slideshow is the tool-of-choice for maximizing the clarity of the documents. It utilitizes all those extra pixels (dots) normally consumed by toolbars and even the Windows taskbar.
Slideshows are also a great way to demonstrate a collection of documents. Back in 1998, I was exhibiting a collection of grayscale page scans, stored in PDF files, in the Xerox booth at a major trade show, and I used the slidehow feature of Adobe Acrobat to do it.
Of course, if your DjVu file collection is a collection of photos, then you might run a slideshow on your PC much as you would run a real slide show with real slides, just to enjoy the viewing of the images.
What slideshow features are available for the DjVu file format? Let's take a look!
Slideshows for DjVu are available in four Windows desktop applications:
 ACDSEEIrfanViewDjVuer ProDjVu SoloThe clear winner in terms of slideshow featues is ACDSEE. You have control over timeout values, transition effects and navigation controls that go beyond any of the other applications. You can even go backward and forwards.
The close runner-up winner is IrfanView. This viewer is the only one that lets you save your multifile slideshow to disk, to be recalled and run at any time.
The DjVuer application offers only basic slideshow features, but one nice feature is the ability to select files out of a folder for inclusion in the slideshow by control-clicking. Timeout values are not supported, so self-running slideshows are not possible. But for on-line reading, this slideshow will do the trick very nicely.
DjVu Solo has a basic slideshow feature. It is limited to a single document (so the document must have multiple pages in order to use this feature). Be sure to read up on the keyboard mapping because it uses control keys instead of the normal navigation keys like Page Down.
The complete details of the slideshow feature for each of these desktop viewers are presented below, as extracted from the help files of each viewer.
Limitations to these Applications
There are limitations to the file support and availability of these applications, as follows:
ACDSEE, IrfanView and DjVuer added support for for the DjVu format three years ago when the format was owned by AT&T. They support only the DjVu 2.x format. They will crash if a DjVu 3.x format file is opened. None of these applications received licensing from LizardTech to upgrade to the DjVu 3.x format. If you have DjVu files in the 3.x format, there is no way to downgrade them to the 2.x format. There are two applications that made DjVu 2.x file, DjVuer and DjVu Shop. DjVu Shop is no longer available, but you may still be abile to get DjVuer from Feith. The DjVuer pages are no longer linked on the Feith website, but you can till find them if you go to www.feith.com and then use the site search feature to search for "djvu".
ACDSEE and IrfanView use a DjVu plugin to view DjVu 2.x files. It is still available with IrfanView, but the current version of ACDSEE has dropped it in the current version (while picking up support for LuraDocument, I might add). You will need to find an older version of ACDSEE that still has the DjVu plugin.
DjVu Solo will read DjVu 3.x files, but a mentioned above, it is limited to one document, and it is no longer available from LizardTech.
The sad truth is that while there were once three Windows viewers supporting the current DjVu format, including slideshow features, today there are none. But if you happen to still have DjVu 2.x files, you can still run a slideshow with the current version of IrfanView.
It is possible that the Document Express Desktop Edition from LizardTech has a slideshow feature, inherited from DjVu Solo. It is not listed as a feature, but then the feature-set information at the LizardTech website is sketchy at best. We are still waiting for detailed information about the Document Express Desktop Edition product, from either LizardTech or from end-users.
So there you have it! If you have DjVu 2.x files, and you can get your hands on some legacy software, you can have a DjVu slideshow today! If you have DjVu 3.x files, you can only hope that someday in the future, desktop viewers like ACDSEE and IrfanView will again be licensed to support DjVu. You can try out ACDSEE and IrfanView using the LuraDocument format, which is very similar to DjVu. You can make LuraDocument files with the free LuraDocument Capture Lite product from Algovison-Luratech, at www.algovisionluratech.com.
Go ahead and try out the slideshow in DjVu Solo if you have a copy. For reading long documents on the computer screen, you might find that it does the trick (and will even save you printing costs!).
Reference Links:
ACDSEE
Creating slide shows
You can use the slide show tool to display a group of images in the Viewer. You can start your slide show after selecting a group of images in the Browser, or you can start it in the Viewer. You can add transition effects, change the delay between images, add audio and text.
Creating a slide show from the Browser
You can create a slide show of selected images or all the images in a folder.
To create a slide show from the Browser:
1. Do one of the following:
Select a group of images.
Select a folder.
2. Click Tools | Slide Show.
3. In the Slide Show dialog box, select or change the options.
4. Click Start.
Slide show options
Style
Select one of the following two options to determine the type of slide show:
Basic slide show:This option displays slides based on the other options you select. It does not use transition effects.
Slide show with transition effects:This option displays slides based on the other options you select and uses transition effects. To specify which transition effects to use, click the Configure button, select the desired effects, and click OK.
Images
Click the Images drop-down arrow and select one of the following three options to specify which images to use in the slide show:
Selected images
All items in current folder
ll items in current folder and subfolders
Sequence Select one of the following three options to specify the sequence that the slide show displays the images:
Forward
Reverse
Random
Select the Repeat check box if you want the slide show to repeat when the last image has been displayed.
Delay Drag the slider or type a value from 0 to 864000000 milliseconds to specify the delay between slides.
Sound Select the Play audio clips check box to play any audio embedded in the selected images.
Captions Select the Show text captions check box to add a caption to each image. This option is only available when you select the Slide show with transition effects style.
To configure the caption, click the Configure button and select or change the caption options.
Creating a slide show from the Viewer
When viewing an image, you can create a slide show of all images that reside in the same folder as the currently viewed image.
To create a slide show from the Viewer:
1. Click Tools | Slide Show.
2. In the Slide Show dialog box, select or change the options.
3. Click Start.
Slide show options
Style Select one of the following two options to determine the type of slide show:
Basic slide show:This option displays slides based on the other options you select. It does not use transition effects.
Slide show with transition effects:This option displays slides based on the other options you select and uses transition effects. To specify which transition effects to use, click the Configure button, select the desired effects, and click OK.
Sequence Select one of the following three options to specify the sequence that the slide show displays the images:
Forward
Reverse
Random
Select the Repeat check box if you want the slide show to repeat when the last image has been displayed.
Delay Drag the slider or type a value from 0 to 864000000 milliseconds to specify the delay between slides.
Sound Select the Play audio clips check box to play any audio embedded in the selected images.
Captions Select the Show text captions check box to add a caption to each image. This option is only available when you select the Slide show with transition effects style. To configure the caption, click the Configure button and select or change the caption options.
Stopping a slide show
You can stop playing a slide show at any time.
To stop a slide show, do one of the following:
Press the Esc key.
Click the Slide Show button.
Automatically running a slide show
You can configure ACDSee to automatically start a slide show when you view an image. The slide show displays all images that reside in the same folder as the currently viewed image.
To automatically run a slide show:
1. Click Tools | Options.
2. In the Options dialog box, click Slide Show.
3. On the Slide Show page, click the Auto-start drop-down arrow, and select Always.
4. Select or change the other Slide show options.
5. Click OK.
Slide show options
Sequence Select one of the following three options to specify the sequence that the slide show displays the images:
Forward
Reverse
Random
Select the Repeat check box if you want the slide show to repeat when the last image has been displayed.
Audio Select the Play audio check box to play any audio embedded in the selected images.
Delay Drag the slider or type a value from 0 to 864000000 milliseconds to specify the delay between slides.
Irfanview
Click on the File menu, select Slideshow. A dialog allows you to select a directory from which the files will be taken. Use Look in and File name to narrow the search; use Files of type to limit the search to one type of file, such as JPG.
Click the file names you want to use. If you have a range of files to choose, click the first. Move the mouse to the last file in the group, hold down the Shift key on the keyboard, and click. To choose individual files, hold down the Ctrl key and click each file name with the mouse. Click the Add button. Click the Add all button to select every image in the directory. Remove and Remove all take files back out.
Click the Advanced button to choose a sort order by name, date, size, or extension. Files may be sorted in ascending or descending order. To remove a sort, click the No sort option button. Click Stop Slideshow and close IrfanView after the last image if you want to close IrfanView after the slideshow. Click OK to close the dialog. To exit without making changes, click the Cancel button.
There are several options for slideshow. If there is a check-mark in the box, the option is "on." Unchecked means "off." Click Loop to cause Slideshow to play continuously. The next option is Suppress errors during slideshow. Next is Show image filename; click this to display the name of the image as it appears on screen. The final option is Hide mouse cursor; click to make the mouse cursor "invisible" while the slideshow is playing. The next option is Don't display same image again (if random slideshow); no repeats in the random slideshow.
There are settings for how long each image will be shown; click the option button of your choice. The top option plays the next image automatically after a number of seconds, any key press will stop the slideshow; type a number into the box to change the timing. The second option will cause the viewer to wait until you touch a key on the keyboard or move the mouse before displaying the next image. The third option plays a randomly chosen image after the specified time, any key press will stop the slideshow; the fourth plays a random image after you touch a key or the mouse.
Click the Play button to begin the slideshow.
Slideshows can be saved for future use. When you choose the images and begin playing a show, IrfanView creates a file named:
Slideshow.lst
which is placed in the IrfanView directory on your disk drive. This may be loaded back into the viewer and used again. Click Load from TXT file, and a dialog like the Open dialog from the File menu appears. Find the file you want to use and click Open to load it. Click Save as TXT file, and a dialog like Save As appears. Give your slideshow a name, and click Save to have it stored on the disk drive.
You can also save the current slideshow also as self running EXE or SCR file (standalone executable/screen saver). First, create and run a slideshow. Now, if all slideshow options work as you wish, click the Save as EXE/SCR file button. The result file is standalone and can be distributed easily.
Possible errors during the EXE creation are: the input file can't be loaded or the disk is full (temp folder).
Slideshows can be created outside of IrfanView, then loaded once you open the viewer. Use a text editor that stores its files as plain text, such as Windows Notepad. The file only contains the name of each image to be played in the slideshow, each on a separate line in the file. Each must include the complete path where the image will be found on your hard drive. It will look something like this:
C:\Images\myimage.JPG
Create the file and store it on your disk. When you start IrfanView, open the Slideshow dialog, and use the Load from TXT file button to start your show. Shows can also be played from outside the viewer, using a Command Line Option.
When you are done click Close. You may also click this before the slideshow starts. Another way to exit is to click the X in the upper right corner.
How to pause an automatic slideshow? Just press the Pause key. Press the pause key again to restart the slideshow.
DjVuer Pro
First make sure that the selection bar is visible. If it is not, click on the 'Selection Bar' item in the 'View' menu.Select one or more images in the file window in the selection bar. A range of files can be selected by first clicking on one file, and then clicking on a second file while holding down the 'Shift' key. Multiple selections can also be made by clicking on files while holding down the 'Ctrl' key.After making the selections, right-click on any of the selected files. This will bring up pop-up menu. Click on the 'Slideshow' to start the slide show with the current selection. End the slide show at any given time by hitting the 'Escape' or 'Q' on the keyboard.
Djvu Solo
Running a slide show
You can show presentations from DjVu Solo using the Slide Show menu. The DjVu Solo Slide Show feature is similar to that of other Windows applications. When you run a slide show, the current document displays in the entire screen, without menus, status bars, or other DjVu Solo window elements.
To run the current document in a slide show:
Click on the document (not the thumbnail) in the main DjVu Solo window.
Choose Slide Show > Begin Slideshow, or press F2 on the keyboard.
You can navigate the document in the slide show a number of ways.
To navigate in a slide show, do one of the following:
Click the document to go to the next page.Right-click the document, choose Navigate, and then choose the appropriate command.Use the keyboard shortcuts for the navigation commands. For a list of the shortcuts, see Keyboard shortcuts.To end a slide show, do one of the following:
Press Esc.Right-click anywhere on the screen (the shortcut menu appears) and then, without choosing a command on the menu, left-click. |
